Rhoda Baxter's Blog

I’ve read and enjoyed Jenny Holiday’s contemporaries, so when I spotted this historical, I grabbed it. It did not disappoint.
Simon wasn’t meant to be an earl – as the third son, he was for the church. He is quiet and studious and serious. He reads a lot, but now he’s discovered fiction, thanks to Miss Diantha Brown, who is the companion/carer for his friend’s mother.
Miss Brown is in a difficult position. She needs to be ruined – but only JUST enough to make her unmarriageable.

I loved bot...

This is an excellent book, probably one of the best I’ve read this year.
I picked up this book on Netgalley when it still have the placeholder cover (just text), so I had no idea what genre it was when I started reading. Tonally, felt like literary fiction, so although I recognised the romance signals, I wasn’t sure if it was going to have a happy ending or not (don’t worry, it has). The characters were compelling enough that I kept reading.
Parker Navarro is an author who writes what sounds l...

I picked this book up from Netgalley because I’m a fan of Jane Lovering’s books.
This is a book about grief and about realising that your parents are whole people, not just your parents. Faith’s dad dies and leaves her a last task to do – visit a number of remote churches and sign the visitors’ books. He also sets up local guide and classical languages expert George to help her.

While there is a romance, the main story is the mystery of why Faith’s dad set her this task and what he wanted ...

Darcy is a grim reaper who is tired of death and taking lives. She wants to do something different – make a difference … maybe save a life. When she is sent to collect a soul, she doesn’t arrive at the moment of the death, but a bit before. So she gets to live as a mortal for a while until the soul needs to be collected.

Gabriel is a guardian angel. His job is to protect people – which is pretty much the opposite of Darcy’s job.

When they meet, there’s instalust. But when they find out...

I love this book! The teacup dragons are ADORABLE, but they are also well intergrated into the fantasy world, so they’re not just a cutesy addition. The world is well realised and believable. I especially liked the contrast between the rule obsessed and stifling academy and the more laissez faire atmosphere of Starling Island.
Portia is wonderfully prickly. It’s nice to see a ‘difficult woman’ as a heroine (she’s not ‘difficult’ she’s just very good at what she does and impatient with idiots ...

This is the best sort of book. Not only did I read it compulsively, because I wanted to see what happened to Laurel and Eli, but it also made me think about the world we live in and view things through a different lens. It’s the sort of book that you finish and then carry on thinking about for days afterwards. (I’ve spent a lot of time Googling to see which things discussed were based on things that actually exist – quite a lot, it turns out. As a writer who hates research, I’m godsmacked by the...

Rule one of being a wedding planner, don’t fall for the bride.

Romance novelist Kalpana is about to marry the man of her dreams – or is she? The chaos of wedding planning is taking its toll on her relationship with the charming but self-absorbed Marcus, a prize-winning literary star.

Enter Sampath, the wedding planner skilled in uncovering what the soon-to-be-wed couple want out of their big day. Marcus wants a traditional wedd...

I requested this from Netgalley because of the title. It sounded like a riot.
Now I’ve read it and it was, indeed, a riot.
Maxine works as an interspecies relationship therapist. When one of her clients gets into some trouble, she ends up leaving Maxine holding an unhatched Draconic egg. Since Maxine sees this egg as a child and she would go to any lengths to protect a life, she goes to extraordinary lengths to protect it.
She has help in the form of Tom, a huge man she met when she went in to ...

I requested this book from Netgalley because I loved Sophie Kim’s earlier book The God and the Gumiho. This book is very different and set in a different world (although New Sinsi gets a small mention in passing).

Carriwitchet is a violent game played in the air, on the back of a winged creatures. Taissa Cho was one of the best in the game, until Kion Locke (also one of the best) got her into trouble by accusing her of cheating. At a stroke, Taissa’s career and her life was destroyed.
Two...

I loved Wooing the Witch Queen, so I grabbed this when it came out. Lorelei, who poses as someone frivolous – but in reality is anything but – kidnaps the enemy general Gerard de Morieu (this happened at the end of the first book) and for Reasons, they end up competing in a Fae competition together.
This book was tremendous fun and there was LOTS of flirty banter. I enjoyed it. I look forward to reading the next one, which is an f/f romance, by the looks of it. Can’t wait.

Buy a copy from ...